7 Things Bartenders Do That Piss Off Their Non-Bartender Friends

2. We might just judge your drink order.

People should order whatever they want. But when our friends make a lame drink order, i.e. a muddled cocktail at a dive bar or a vodka soda with three limes, we can’t help but judge a little. We love you, but you’re doing it wrong.

3. We know everyone.

When you work in the food and drink industry, you get to know a lot of people. So, when you go out for dinner or drinks, odds are you will run into someone you know. This can be annoying for our friends because they either get forced into awkward small talk with strangers or get to stare at their phones as we catch up with regulars.

4. We can never commit to plans.

This annoys us about bartending, too. When you work weekends, it can be hard to negotiate coverage every time there’s a baby shower or a bachelor party to attend. As for our days off, we want to go out to dinner and see our friends and get to be people, but sometimes we’re so socially exhausted from talking all week that we just need to stay in and recharge. And last-minute shift changes tend to wreck our plans.

5. We also suck at texting back.

If you text us while we’re at work, we’ll probably read your text, but usually, before we can respond, we get distracted by doing our jobs. Then we get home late, we’re tired, and we forget to respond until two weeks later. It’s probably really annoying, but it’s not intentional.

6. We’re way behind on internet memes.

When you don’t spend the day staring at a computer screen, you miss out on the internet memes sweeping the nation. It’s not so much annoying as perplexing to our non-bartender friends. I saw my friend doing the floss once and just thought that was how she danced.

7. We love taking shots.

Free shots are the bartender’s handshake. When you’re in college, shots are about getting drunk as quickly as possible. When you’re a bartender, shots are about camaraderie. You could be doing shots of water; it’s not about the alcohol. But the problem is that you’re not doing shots of water. So when you hang with friends who aren’t accustomed to drinking as much, they end up with killer hangovers the next day and point the finger at us — rightly so.